A PENSIONER died after pricking her finger on a thorn as she was gardening.

Jean Brown, a former district nurse, contracted lethal blood poisoning after jagging her right index finger as she pruned a plant in her back garden.

The 78-year-old grandmother-of-two pierced her gardening gloves as she maintained the Japonica bush at her home in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

Mrs Brown, a widow for the past 20 years, treated the wound for several days before her neighbours became alarmed at the condition of her arm.

She was taken to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, on April 20, where hospital doctors immediately began treating her from septicaemia.

Her blood was filtered through a dialysis machine three times before she was given a blood transfusion in a desperate bid to save her life.

But despite undergoing an operation and being taken into intensive care, Mrs Brown suffered renal failure and was put on a life support machine.

Her distraught family then had to take the agonising choice of switching off their loved one's support.

Speaking last night Hazel Brown, 48, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, told of her devastation at her mother's sudden death.

She said: "It all happened so quickly.

"Mum didn't smoke or drink and walked everywhere she went so she was really fit for her age.

"If someone told me this was the way she would die then I wouldn't have believed it.

"Mum did have a chest infection and was struggling to shake it off so her immune system must have been very weak when she pricked her finger. That would have played a big part in her deteriorating so quickly.

"Being a nurse she decided to treat it herself and never told anyone until she showed her neighbours who were horrified. They pleaded with her constantly to go to hospital but she wouldn't go.

"The poison had spread up her arm and she must have been in agony. Her hand had turned purple and she had white dots on her skin. I can't believe she didn't think she needed to go to hospital.

"Mum was eventually taken in after being very sick the night before but she looked and sounded terrible. She only lasted another 48 hours.

"It was terrible seeing her in there and it was a harrowing decision to turn off her life support machine. I wouldn't wish anyone to be put in that position."

Mrs Brown, who is survived by her two children Robert, 56, and Hazel, had worked as a nurse for her whole working life including spells caring for sick children.

She later became a well known face in the Lanarkshire area when she started working as a district nurse before taking early retirement aged 55.

A regular church goer, she was a member of Hamilton West Church and was heavily involved in charity work including Christian Aid.

Her husband Robert passed away aged 67 after contracting a chest infection which later led to pneumonia two decades ago.

Roger Vincent of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "There are around 300,000 people who need hospital treatment due to injuries suffered in the garden each year, although people dying from their injuries are extremely rare.

"Although highly unusual, this once again highlights the importance of protecting yourself while gardening."